Northwestern University Device Lab Podcast Studio

Northwestern University Device Lab Podcast Studio

Posted May 10, 2017 by Jordan Clark

The recently openedDevice Lab on the first floor of Fisk Hall is a playground for anyone at Northwestern who wants to experiment with the new technologies that are actively shaping the future of storytelling. It offers a communal space for those interested in technology or journalism to congregate and learn from each other within the worlds of tech and media.

The lab is home to a dedicated podcast studio, which is equipped with everything needed to create a professional-sounding podcast. Joe Germuska, executive director of the Knight Lab said, “The Device Lab was created to give the Northwestern community access to emerging media platforms. Podcasting is one of many new ways for communicating which we wanted to support.”

Podcasts can be a great tool to use in your courses to promote learning in creative and innovative ways. You could assign students to produce their own podcasts discussing class material, sharing their thoughts on a certain reading, or presenting about a particular subject in depth. The podcasts could also be shared with other students in the course to allow them to learn from each other.

In addition, as an instructor, you could explore producing your own podcasts to engage students with material outside of class time, be it summarizing lecture content or providing further insights on certain topics.

Podcasts are easy to create and require no special experience to get started. “The equipment is fairly easy to use,” Germuska said. “We offered two workshops last quarter introducing people to the technology and the basic methods for recording and editing podcasts.”

“We also have students who work in the Device Lab on hand to help with all of our equipment, but generally, we’d encourage interested students or faculty to drop by and get acquainted, and if necessary, we can try to schedule time with the appropriate person for some support,” said Germuska.